By Sammy Nagy

“While I knew this year’s robot was good, and knew that we definitely had a shot at winning, when the moment actually came I was left in disbelief,” said Bradley Spiker on Tempe Prep’s victory at the 2015 FIRST Robotics Arizona East Regional competition.

Ranging from pure disbelief to sentiments similar to those held by Bradley, virtually everyone was surprised when Tempe Prep’s team 3944, in a triple alliance with two other Arizona robots, beat the top-seeded alliance, comprised of the number one and two ranked teams, and won this year’s Eastern Arizona regional.

The competition, a three-day event that included practice rounds, qualification rounds and elimination rounds, started roughly, with issues ranging from communication difficulties between the controller input and onboard router, to mechanical dysfunction. However, when the time came for the qualification rounds, the team triumphed, reaching its peak near the end of the second day by achieving fourth place.

By lunch time the following day, the elimination rounds had commenced, pitting the Tempe Prep team with alliance members from Tucson and Scottsdale, against seven separate alliances. For three hours, these groups battled it out, slowly trimming down the competition until only two alliances were left to compete: Tempe Prep’s alliance, headed by the Tucson team, against the top ranked team, captained by a team from San Diego.

Playing best two out of three, Tempe Prep’s alliance of three scored a record number of points for the regional, taking triumph and earning a chance to compete at the National competition at St. Louis.